Monday, April 24th kicks off the 12th annual Inside Counsel Super Conference. This year’s theme is: Elevate, Innovate, Change—From Legal Advisor to Strategic Partner. No longer just providing legal counsel, in-house attorneys have become strategic business partners within their companies. Supporting that theme, Business Integrity, a silver sponsor at the event, will be unveiling its new ContractExpress QuickStart solution for contract automation and management. According to Business Integrity, NDA QuickStart package is a fast and effective way for corporate legal departments to automate the creation and management of non-disclosure agreements and confidentiality agreements, accelerating business.

ContractExpress brings self-service contract creation to business users by presenting them with an easy to use, browser based, business oriented questionnaire. ContractExpress’ approval process enforces compliance by allowing a business user to access a signature ready, locked PDF version of the NDA, but only if their answers are complete and compliant – as defined by Legal.

The latter functionality is already available in ContractExpress. The QuickStart bit applies to the implementation of the solution. Business Integrity’s team will work with you to automate your confidentially agreement template and train your legal and business staff, getting you off the ground “in less than a month”. In particular, state-of-the-art NDA content already configured for ContractExpress is available from Business Integrity’s content partner, Koncision Contract Automation.

Business Integrity is also offering a discount to anyone that signs up for a demo during the conference and subsequently signs up for the product by May 30th. To learn more stop by their table at the conference or email them at sales.us@business-integrity.com if you’re not going to attend.

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The wonderful folks at PLC have another free webinar for your enjoyment. In leveraged acquisitions of public companies, many different sections of the merger agreement address the possibility and consequences of a financing failure. How are buyers and sellers currently using these tools to allocate financing risk?

During Practical Law Company’s free webinar, their expert attorney editors will review trends in termination, enforcement and remedy provisions seen in public deals in 2011. Learn how dealmakers are using reverse break-up fees, specific performance, damages remedies and financing covenants to tailor an approach to financing risk.

A short Q&A session will follow.

Date: Thursday, April 26, 2012

Time: 12:30 PM – 1:00 PM ET (9:30 AM PT)

Speakers:
Chris Lafferty, Head of PLCWhat’s Market
Daniel Rubin, Senior Editor, PLCCorporate & Securities

Register for the free webinar today!

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InhouseBlog encourages you to join the GC Metrics, LLC Benchmark Survey. Simply click on the survey link below and take a few minutes to enter your company’s 2011 staff numbers as well as your internal and external legal spend. https://novisurvey.net/n/benchmarkmetrics2012.aspx

The first 105 participants in this year’s General Counsel Metrics industry benchmark survey let GC Metrics start to gauge the eventual group. For one, the pace projects to more than 300 law departments in the first release, which will go out in early June.

Two-thirds of the initial group are U.S. law departments, slightly ahead of the 61% figure at the end of last year’s 829 participating companies. So far, three other countries each have 4 participants (Belgium, Canada, and the UK).

Regarding industries, Manufacturing and Technology have the most participants, with 17 and 11, respectively. Food & Beverage, Financial Services, Telecomm, and Retail each have 7-9 participants.

The law departments to date employ 4,469 lawyers, so the median of 8 lawyers is the same as last year’s for the final report. The median revenue so far lags last year’s by about $300 million, at $1 billion.

Interestingly, of the participants at this early point, 42 of them took part in neither the 2010 survey nor the 2011 survey. The significant influx of new participants and new data will alter industry benchmarks and will strengthen the releases as they come out.

Head over to the survey today to get your stats in: https://novisurvey.net/n/benchmarkmetrics2012.aspx.

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Another great article by Michael Maslanka, of Constangy Brooks & Smith, LLP, who in addition to being an acclaimed attorney, is a prolific and thoughtful writer. He publishes the award-winning Work Matters blog (on employment and labor law issues), which is a must read. All attorneys, both in-house and outside counsel, have a lot to learn from his wisdom.

I celebrated my 30th anniversary as a lawyer in 2011. Here are 10 things I have learned over the years.

[via 10 Lessons from 30 Years in the Law.]

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Both CorpCounsel and its parent company, ALM, were among the winners at American Business Media’ 58th Annual Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Awards.

[via: CorpCounsel, ALM Take Home 2012 Jesse H. Neal Awards at CorpCounsel]

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Epstein Becker Green has launched a free Wage & Hour Guide for Employers app for the iPhone and iPad. The app puts federal wage-hour laws and those of many states (including California, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, New York, Texas, and Virginia) at the fingertips of employers.

Rather than search through a variety of resources to find the applicable law, users can follow this easy-to-navigate app to find the answers to many of their questions, including citations of statutes, regulations, and guidelines. To provide the best experience possible, the app enables users to download the guide to their iOS device for reference anywhere, at any time, with or without a connection. Additionally, for up-to-date commentary on wage-hour developments, the app provides quick access to Epstein Becker Green’s award-winning Wage & Hour Defense Blog.

At a time when wage-hour litigation and agency investigations are at an all-time high, this app offers an invaluable resource for employers, human resources personnel, and in-house counsel. The multitude of wage and hour claims that employees have filed under the Fair Labor Standards Act and its state law counterparts have made compliance with the intricate wage and hour laws more important than ever. Employers in all industries – including health care, financial services, hospitality, retail, construction, technology, and communications – are susceptible to claims under these statutes.

Epstein Becker Green’s Wage & Hour Guide for Employers has been prepared by some of the most respected counselors, litigators, and authors in the field, to help you achieve your business objectives in compliance with federal and state wage-hour laws, and to avoid government investigations and class action litigation.

To learn more and install the app, search the App Store on iTunes for “Wage Hour” or click here. The app is free of charge.

About Epstein Becker Green

Epstein Becker & Green, P.C., founded in 1973, is a national law firm with approximately 300 lawyers practicing in 11 offices, in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, New York, Newark, San Francisco, Stamford, and Washington, D.C. The Firm is uncompromising in its pursuit of legal excellence and client service in its areas of practice: Health Care and Life Sciences, Labor and Employment, Litigation, Corporate Services, and Employee Benefits. Epstein Becker Green was founded to serve the health care industry and has been at the forefront of health care legal developments since 1973. The Firm is also proud to be a trusted advisor to clients in the financial services and hospitality industries, among others, representing entities from startups to Fortune 100 companies. Our commitment to these practices and industries reflects the founders’ belief in focused proficiency paired with seasoned experience. For more information, visit www.ebglaw.com. Attorney Advertising.

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More than 8,000 law blog fans registered to vote for their favorite newsy, useful, fun or practice-specific blogs featured in the 5th Annual ABA Journal Blawg 100. Check out the 12 category-specific winners as they may pique your reading interest for 2012 and beyond.

[via: The Readers’ Choice: Voters’ Top Blawg 100 Picks at the ABA Journal]

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Another site to check out, and tip of the hat to Rees Morrison for finding it:

A collection of international laws is available on vLex. Along the lines of Justia’s offering, vLex appears to me from wandering around on its website to be very impressive. In the banner it boasts “43,505 customers, 62,590,371 documents….

[via: vLex, an online repository of legal information with extensive geographic and language coverage at the Law Department Management Blog]

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Looking for new legal blogs (blawgs) to read? Head over to Dennis Kennedy’s 2011 Blawggie Awards to check out this year’s winners. InhouseBlog was included as a runner-up to Ken Adam’s excellent Koncise Drafter blawg in the “Best Practice Specific Blawg” category. Woo hoo! Check out Ken’s blog and many more at Dennis Kennedy’s awards page:

Welcome to the 2011 edition of Dennis Kennedy’s annual Best of Law-related Blogging Awards, affectionately known as the “Blawggies.”

The Blawggies, which honor the best law-related blogs as determined from my personal and highly-opinionated perspective, were first unleashed on an unsuspecting blogosphere in December 2004 and are an annual tradition here at DennisKennedy.Blog.

I’m very pleased that this eighth edition of the awards makes them the longest running annual awards list for law-related blogs selected by a lawyer named Dennis Kennedy living in St. Louis, Missouri – just a crazy idea that has turned into a bit of an institution in the world of law-related blogging.

[via DennisKennedy.Blog » Announcing the 2011 Blawggie Awards.]

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Release 4 of their survey goes out this week, bulging with key benchmark metrics from 740 law departments. That marks quite a jump from 530 legal departments in October’s Release 3. Many more will take part in this epic benchmarking effort before it closes in January. There is no cost and only six pieces of data need to be entered on the secure online survey: your staffing numbers, internal and external legal spend, and revenue.

Companies that take part will also be eligible for two exciting products to be announced early next year. GC Metrics will send them Insights, an innovative report on matter management systems, as well as findings from the combination of two years of data – more than 1,200 law departments!

Click here to take General Counsel Metric’s seven-minute survey and receive your report of 65 pages in mid-January. It will cover at least 24 industries.

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A negotiation app that was released recently through Apple and will be released soon for Android (BlackBerry to follow) could help in-house counsel. Head over to the Law Department Management Blog to learn more.

[via: An app for in-house counsel who negotiate and settle at the Law Department Management Blog]

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Looking for a sample code of conduct? Or want to see how provisions of your code of conduct stack up against your peer companies? Check out the Ethisphere Institute’s new Code of Conduct Dataset (free registration required):

The Ethisphere Code of Conduct Dataset is an aggregation of code of conduct content and policies from the 500 largest corporations by revenue. The information contained in the dataset, which was collected between January 2011 and September 2011, breaks down key aspects and content areas within each code of conduct by 42 criteria. The online, searchable dataset contains and policies benchmarked by industry.

The dataset is designed to provide compliance officers with a centralized tool for reviewing peer practices in code development to improve their own codes of conduct.

Created in partnership between Ethisphere and attorneys Ryan D. McConnell, Katharine Southard, and Charlotte Simon.

[via Code of Conduct Dataset | Ethisphere™ Institute.]

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The ABA Journal’s annual list of the top 100 legal blogs (blawgs!) was released today. Visit the ABA Journal today to learn more about blawgs that you may want to subscribe to – and don’t forget to cast your vote for your current favorites!

[via The 5th Annual ABA Journal Blawg 100 - Magazine - ABA Journal.]

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Ken Adams, author of A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting, is a leading authority on clear and effective contract language. When you take into account his scholarship, his commitment, and the way he engages with the transactional world, Ken is a formidable force in the contract drafting world.

In a recent chat with Ken, he explained that his work on guidelines for contract language represents a means to an end — commoditizing contract drafting, so that lawyers can devote more time to higher-value tasks. He mentioned that he was about to launch his venture Koncision Contract Automation, which would offer document-assembly contract templates.

Well, that has now happened, in a modest way, as Koncision’s first product—a confidentiality-
agreement template for the U.S. market—is now available. Go to www.koncision.com for plenty of
information on what Koncision has to offer.

You can get an NDA for next to nothing from the likes of LegalZoom and Rocket Lawyer, and you can
find plenty of NDAs online for free. But no self-respecting deal person would be caught dead using
them. What Koncision has to offer is something very different. The language in Koncision’s template
complies with Ken’s guidelines, so it’s clear as can be. The substance has been compiled with the help
of an editorial board of experienced practitioners. And the template is powered by ContractExpress, a market-leading document-assembly software package.

Because Ken not only compiled the template language but also automated it, the result is a very
sophisticated bit of document assembly. To create an NDA, you answer an online questionnaire,
complete with authoritative guidance. ContractExpress is logic-driven, so as you answer questions, the
remainder of the questionnaire will adjust itself as necessary to reflect your answers. The template can be used for any kind of NDA, whether it’s for an M&A transaction or part of an ongoing commercial
relationship.

If you are looking for a contact automation solution that would allow you to save time and money while creating top-notch NDAs, you should give Koncision a look and ask yourself whether the benefits it offers are worth the modest price of the subscription options. Let us hear your feedback!

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AboveTheLaw welcomes a new columnist, David Mowry, who is Counsel in Xerox’s Office of the General Counsel. His new column “House Rules” kicks off with a post on making the move from litigation to transactional work.

[via: House Rules: Moving From Litigation to Transactional Work at Above The Law]

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Did somebody say free? That is a welcome word to strapped law departments everywhere – tip of the hat to Rees Morrison of the Law Department Management Blog for finding this site that is offering free global legal information for inhouse lawyers:

According to this London-based company’s website and ads, GTDTonline provides in-house counsel with summaries of laws and regulations in 43 practice areas and more than 120 jurisdictions. The summaries explain “the most important legal and regulatory matters that arise in…

[via: Getting the Deal Through (GTDT) and its offerings of global legal information, free for in-house lawyers at the Law Department Management Blog]

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UPDATE: nominations are now closed.

Time is running out to nominate your top legal blogs (or “blawgs” as they are also known) for ABA Journal’s Blawg 100. Entries are due today so head over to the ABA to submit your nomination. If you enjoy InhouseBlog, now would be a good time to nominate us! We were proud to be included in the ABA Journal’s Top 100 Blawg list in 2008.

[via Blawg 100 Amici - ABA Journal.]

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Think reverse auctions are all the rage? Think again. Rees Morrison has compiled a list of competitive bidding sites that law departments can use to procure external counsel.

[via: Four online competitive bidding sites for law departments to procure external counsel at the Law Department Management Blog]

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It’s that time of year again – the ABA Journal has begun its search for the Top 100 Law Blogs, a list that InhouseBlog was proud to be part of in 2008. We would love to be considered for inclusion in the list again this year. If you enjoy InhouseBlog and would like to show your support, visit the ABA Journal Law Blog Amici page and suggest InhouseBlog. Submissions are due no later than September 9, 2011. Thank you for your support!

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Perry Cone of LeadingInhouse.com reports on a book that may be of interest to in-house counsel:

Although Little Bets is written with the entrepreneur in mind, I believe it has a far wider application, to include in-house counseling and our personal lives. The premise of the book is that in your approach to a project, rather than putting all of your eggs in one basket ("big bets"), try out lots of different little things ("little bets"), knowing full well that many or most will fail, but along the way discovering what works and what doesn’t. Then take those things that work and implement them on a wider scale.

[via LeadingInHouse.com: "Little bets" can work for in-house counsel, too.]

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Robert Ambrogi reports that Justia continues to best FindLaw – this time in the legal commentary arena.

[via Justia Launches Site for Legal Commentary · Robert Ambrogi's LawSites.

]

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Keeping Allstate Corp. in good hands, Michele Coleman Mayes sets an example for future women GCs.

[via Allstate GC Paves the Way for Women in Law].

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Tip of the hat to Rees Morrison of the excellent Law Department Management Blog for discovering yet another in-house lawyer who is adding to the blawgosphere – this time, an attorney across the pond using the moniker “Mr. Bizzle”:

Mr. Bizzle, a UK solicitor, does give some clues. “I’m an in house commercial/contracts lawyer, mostly doing outsourcing work. I trained in house, which means that in contrast to the rest of the profession I’m a relatively ordinary person with a sense of perspective and a social conscience. However, in common with all lawyers I am poorly socialised and have an enormous (and entirely unwarranted) self-regard.”

[via The Bizzle]

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Tip of the hat to Legal Blog Watch for the link – get the scoop on some of the most watched blogs from 2010.

[via Legal Blog Watch]

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The latest from Eric Goldman, Professor and Director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University on Internet Law trends. If you are interested in this area of the law, don’t forget to subscribe to his Technology and Marketing Law Blog.

[via Technology & Marketing Law Blog: "Trends in Internet Law" Talk Slides]

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Congrats go out to Rees Morrison as his excellent Law Department Management Blog reaches new milestones. If you haven’t visited his blog, head over today to see what you’ve been missing.

[via Law Department Management: Five years; five thousand posts; five hundred thousand page views – High Fives!!]

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Need to get up to speed on immigration law issues? If so, you should check out the Corporate Immigration Law News blog for the latest updates. The blog is published by Meyner and Landis LLP, which has a full service immigration law practice. Their immigration law team was founded by Anthony F. Siliato, Esq., who has been practicing immigration law for over twenty-five years. To learn more, visit the Corporate Immigration Law News blog to read their latest posts.

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Attorney Robert J. Ambrogi reviews three noteworthy new Web sites that target legal professionals. The first is a networking site for lawyers and other professionals. The second helps manage legal transactions. The third is an information hub for corporate legal resources. Take a look.

[via Legal Technology - Three New Web Sites Target Legal Pros.]

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Both Rees Morrison and Bob Ambrogi (two recognized masters of the legal web) have picked up on a new site, myCorporateResource.com, that aims to add some order to the chaos of law firm bulletins and alerts. According to the site, it is:

designed to empower corporate professionals with the latest in legal and commercial information from the world’s top law firms and industry insiders. Every year the top 100 American law firms produce more than 10,000 Client Alerts addressing the key commercial and legal issues faced by their clients. We aggregate, review, sort and summarize this content -for free- to give you a really useful corporate resource.

Visit myCorporateResource.com–Empowering the Corporate Community to check it out.

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Trademark lawyers and marketing lovers take notice, there is a new blog on the scene. DuetsBlog is published by Winthrop & Weinstine, P.A. and “was born out of the chasm that can divide legal and marketing types”:

Sometimes this separation can be explained by the difference between left and right brain dominance. Sometimes it is driven by arrogance or rigidity. Sometimes Dr. No is the root of the problem, standing in the way of progress and stifling important business goals. Other times, simple oversight is the culprit. Whatever the reason, this divergence can be a formidable obstacle to early coordination, planning, and dialogue between legal and marketing teams. When this happens, most certainly the opportunity for an organization to be strategic, create and own great value, and protect it, is diminished, if not lost altogether. DuetsBlog is our effort to facilitate a more ambidextrous approach and promote early—and very graceful—collaborations among legal and marketing teams.

Read on at Creativity and the Law: DuetsBlog.

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